Antennas include delicate components that may be damaged when exposed to ambient conditions. Therefore, antennas are often housed in radomes that prevent physical matter, such as debris, precipitation, moving air and the like, from coming into direct physical contact with antenna components. As such, a radome functions as a physical barrier to potentially damaging matter, while still permitting the propagation of electromagnetic radiation, particularly radio waves, to and from the protected antenna.
Vehicles, such as aircraft, marine vehicles, ground vehicles and spacecraft, typically use radar for various purposes (e.g., weather and/or navigation). The radar antenna is typically housed in a radome that is transparent to radar waves over a frequency band dictated by the operational requirements of the radar. For example, the nose cone of an aircraft may house a weather radar operating within the X band of the radio spectrum, thereby requiring that the nose cone be configured as an X band tuned radome.
Lightning strikes and electromagnetic pulses can cause significant damage to sensitive electronics, such as radar antennas. Because aircraft are vulnerable to lightning strikes, steps have been taken to introduce lightning strike protection to aircraft radomes. As one example, lightning diverter strips have been added to the exterior of aircraft radomes to guide away lightning-generated currents. As another example, highly conductive metal screening has been embedded directly into the composite material forming the aircraft radome. However, in both examples, gaps in the lightning protection must be formed to provide a window through which the radar waves may propagate. Unfortunately, such windows leave the radar antenna vulnerable to lightning strikes and electromagnetic pulses.
Accordingly, those skilled in the art continue with research and development efforts in the field of radomes.